Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

DKosty123 This film is perhaps to long but it kind of is a Western with a theme that would be used later on and much more effectively in "The Sting". While this movie has a great cast with Joanne Woodward, Henry Fonda, and Jason Robards particularly effective, the script could have been so much better if it had been developed more with the characters. It does have poker in mind, and the bluff in particular as themes.What the film does not do is develop the story line better. In The Sting, all of the characters are carefully developed and even though you have it all in front of you what is going down, there is enough else going on that you still enjoy the actual deception and get a feeling for the characters. This film has some great characters and even though the story tries to hide what is going on, it sort of tips it's hand. Robards here plays a pretty good heavy, but it is never explained why he is one of 4 guys who all get played by Fonda in the game. What is really not making much sense is how all the players at the table all have a good enough hand to stay in until the end. Poker just does not work that way. It is hard to swallow all of them staying in for huge money. The poker game in The Sting makes more sense with 2 players surviving for the big pot, and everyone else dropping out.Even though the viewer is not told a lot about the minor characters in the cast until after the game, it becomes too easy to suspect there are other motivations for everyone before the big bluff happens. This story was first done as a television production and then was expanded here into a movie. While the results are good, they are not perfect. Some great support here from Burgess Meredith and Charles Bickford among others. I feel this is an actors school sort of film. There are some great lessons for method acting from a great cast, but the film falls just a little short of being a great one. Think if the director had been better about how they paced the film, which at times it seems to stop in its tracks or winds up a bit slow, it would have been better.

jacobs-greenwood Produced and directed by Fielder Cook and written by Sidney Carroll, this above average comedy Western stars Henry Fonda and features Joanne Woodward in the title role. The exceptional cast also includes Jason Robards, Paul Ford, Charles Bickford, Burgess Meredith, Kevin McCarthy, Robert Middleton, and John Qualen.Fonda plays a reformed "on the poker wagon" gambler now homesteader that happens upon the high stakes annual game between Robards, Bickford, McCarthy, Middleton, and Qualen in a remote town. Though his wife (Woodward) and his preteen son Jackie (Gerald Michenaud) try to keep him out of it, Fonda is unable to resist joining the game even though the $1,000 entry fee is a quarter of their life savings intended to be used to buy a 40 acre farm in San Antonio, Texas.When Fonda has all $4,000 of his family's money in the pot and he's $500 short of being able to call the most recent bet, Woodward bursts into the room where the game is being played (the back room of a hotel/saloon run by James Kenny). While explaining the situation to her, he suffers a heart attack and must be attended to by the beloved but poor local doctor (Meredith).Because wealthy farmer Robards left his daughter in the middle of her wedding to play poker, and defense attorney McCarthy departed the courthouse just before he was deliver his closing remarks to keep his client from the gallows, the men are impatient to finish their game.Though she professes to know nothing about poker, Woodward pleads to play on her husband's behalf because of their dire financial situation. Though undertaker Bickford hates women, Middleton is persuaded to bend the rules and allow her to leave the room (with the others save Qualen in tow) to go and see banker Ford about a loan.Convinced that he's being put on by the others, especially since the only collateral Woodward offers is the hand she shows him, Ford has his clerk (Milton Selzer) throw them out. However, shortly thereafter, Ford arrives at the game to verify that they were joking, only to find that they were not.Then, after a soliloquy about how conservative his investment philosophy has been, Ford says that he's backing Woodward, based on her hand, calls the $500 and raises the rest of them $5,000, after which each of the others folds. Though they lost, the men feel charmed to have been in the presence of the little lady so devoted to her husband.But the story doesn't end there, and I won't spoil the denouement which includes a couple of different sequences and a surprise ending.

ma-cortes This is an ironic and sarcastic comedy Western with extraordinary roster of character actor , centering in poker game , a marathon in city of Laredo . This is picture set in the old west , a tale that adds comedy , emotion , and a rich sense of humor to make the picture a funny and entertaining flick . It tells the story of a poker game which is deemed the most important in the West for the amount of money bets , personality and social highlight of the players (Jason Robards , Kevin McCarthy , John Qualen , Robert Middleton) , and for its long tradition , sixteen years ; as they regularly meet once year in the location , date and time agreed . Rule of the game is the following : you must sit in from the beginning and it's the wildest poker game in the west . The event raises great expectations and the winner becomes a folk hero of legend . There arrives a traveler (Henry Fonda) who bets more money than he can afford in the poker game , and unusual events follow , as he fails to overcome his penchant for gambling . Then , his wife (Joanne Woodward) , a strong woman , ready to defend her rights until the end .This enjoyable film contains humor , irony , tongue-in-check and results to be an agreeable caper plenty of close-ups and irrelevancies . The script of the film is an ironic and sarcastic story with an all-star-cast giving magnificent acting who make up the yarn , including a neat surprise final , too . The dialogue is amusing , short and accurate , with artful twists free of traps and full of surprises . The combination of suspense and humor is perfectly achieved : both factors are complementary . This movie was initially written for television as "Big Deal in Laredo", in fact , this started life as a 48 minute teleplay by screen-writer Sidney Carroll . Director Fielder Cook manages to recreate a powerful story , told with great austerity , but that keeps us interested until the ending . ¨Big Hand for a Little Lady¨ and ¨The Sting¨ (1973) are both movies about swindling big shot gamblers who were used to swindling unsuspecting players ; these two movies are also connected by the actors who starred in them . The film has a top-notch cast , as Joanne Woodward as the ¨Little Lady¨ who uses her feminine shrewdness to scoop the pot , Henry Fonda as her husband shows modest and emotional attitude , and plunges us into a dramatic character which threatens all our hopes . And with them , Jason Robards , Kevin McCarthy , John Qualen , Paul Ford , Robert Middleton , Burgess Meredith , all of them manage to give the best result to a bemusing flick . Furthermore , brief apparitions from James Griffith , Virginia Gregg , Milton Selzer , and veteran Mae Clarke . This film provides the final film of Charles Bickford , and ending screen appearance of comedian Chester Conklin, who had appeared in about 300 movies from 1913 .Colorful as well as evocative cinematography by Lee Garmes . Atmospheric and appropriate musical score by David Raskin who previously composed the classic soundtrack for ¨Laura¨ . The motion picture was well written and directed by Fielder Cook , he was an usual filmmaker for TV , in fact , several of his 1970s productions were originally televised on the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" and occasionally for cinema such as ¨Patterns¨, ¨Seize the day¨ , ¨Eagle in a Cage¨ and this ¨A big hand for the Little lady¨. .

jimbenben I recall seeing the TV version of this when I was a kid. In that version, the "son" was revealed to be an adult performer from a circus. In the movie, the son is clearly identified as a child but there is still a comment from Henry Fonda that they need to return him to the circus. That never makes sense to me. Without the plot twist that he is an adult, what does the circus have to do with anything? And why would the child be handling the cash? That only makes sense if he is actually an adult. Has anybody else wondered about this plot point, or am I over-analyzing? (Also, is there a cast list for the TV version or has that been lost? I don't find it on IMDb. In my memory, the "son" was played by the same young actor in both versions... but it's been too long for me to be certain of that.)